Victoria Film Festival 2021 Brings The Shorts Home

From Feb 5-14, the Victoria Film Festival is bringing you, the viewer a smorgasbord of shorts & feature films which I have been fortunate enough to have been sent to view and cover here for you from Emily McMahon, the communications manager with the festival.

This article will feature some of the shorts that stood out for me.

There are so many good shorts here at this festival I don't know where to start, but some really stand out.

Alotting, I, Barnabe, The Great Malaise, Song Sparrow. Those are just a few of them and then there are ones that really inspire, engage, and empower the viewer-at least it did for me.

Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson | USA | 8 min

Story synopsis:

Kapaemahu is an animated short film that reveals the hidden history of four healing stones on Waikiki Beach, also known as the Wizard Stone.

The story, the beautiful way in which it is told and the amazing animation is what makes this short film stand out amongst many that I have seen this year.

Invasion: The Unist’ot’en’s Fight for Sovereignty

Michael Toledano, Sam Vinal | BC, Canada | 18 min In this era of “reconciliation”, Indigenous land is still being taken at gunpoint. INVASION is verité cinematic experience about the Unist’ot’en Camp, Gidimt’en checkpoint, and the larger Wet’suwet’en Nation standing up to the Canadian government and corporations who continue colonial violence against Indigenous peoples.

It's really a shame how little we know what is happening in our own backyard, yet things like this often go unnoticed in the public eye, and for that reason, this film was made and all the more reason that the people are speaking up. Take 18 minutes and watch this film and see what I did not know was happening. Shame for us not to have a bigger focus on this situation.

The Animated

Jereme Watt | BC, Canada | 3 min A man’s wife passes away and he can’t bear to part with her.

In what may seem like a morbid tale this instead is a poem of the undying love that this particular man has for his dead wife, yes she has passed away some time ago--you would have to see it to understand what it is I mean.

A Piece of Cake

The Bragg Brothers | USA | 12 min Story synopsis:

When a desperate father discovers his daughter’s favorite cake decoration is illegal, he descends into a confectionery black market. Now he must make the ultimate parenting choice: break a birthday promise or break the law?

Have you ever had those moments as a parent where you promise your child something that you never thought would be such an impossible task? Those decorative silver balls for cakes and the like his daughter wants them for her cake(as mentioned above) he goes to many stores and when that runs dry he finds out there is a black market for them, let the comedy take over and enjoy this comedic short.

Here is the link for the festival it is running until Feb 14, 2021

https://2021.victoriafilmfestival.com/